A federal court in Indiana Tuesday sentenced a Hoosier who admitted to threatening a Jewish non-profit amid a recent spate of antisemitic incidents, according to federal prosecutors.
Andrezj Boryga, 67, will be imprisoned for 24 months after which he will be under supervised release for two years “for willfully transmitting in interstate commerce threats to injure other people and for choosing his victims because of their religion,” the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said. Boryga’s target was the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Prosecutors revealed that Boryga left eight voicemails containing antisemitic slurs and threats to assault or kill Jews at ADL offices in New York, Texas, Colorado, and Nevada between July 9 and Dec. 14, 2022, according to the DOJ’s press release.
In one such voicemails to the ADL office in New York City, Boryga said, “My grandfather [unintelligible] SS officer…he personally shoot [sic] 120 Jews for target practice…I will kill more than that…You all have to die, you motherf—ers,” according to an indictment filed in court in Southern Indiana. The message was dated Jul. 25, 2022.
An Aug. 18, 2022 voicemail of Boryga’s to an ADL office in Denver, Colorado, ran, “You’re going to suck my d—k, Nazi c—k, you motherf—er, Jewish b—es, before I cut your f—ing throat,” prosecutors further told the court.
In certain other messages, Boryga made references to beheadings and an “oven party” and called Jewish people “filthy animals,” the indictment revealed. (RELATED: ‘All Jews Must Die’: Man Admits To Repeatedly Threatening Synagogues, Jewish Businesses)
Indiana Man Pleads Guilty and Is Sentenced for Sending Violent Antisemitic Threats to Anti-Defamation League
🔗: https://t.co/zkOmkRnTLC pic.twitter.com/CZfjxfTzjk
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) July 23, 2024
The DOJ reportedly has prosecuted and sentenced more than 30 individuals in recent months for various antisemitic hate crimes, with Boryga’s case being the latest in a spate of such crimes since Hamas’ lightning Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel.
Boryga’s threats betrayed his “hate-filled mindset,” struck fear in the recipients of the threatening voicemails, and offended basic American societal values, said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“This sentence should send a clear message to perpetrators and would-be perpetrators of hate crimes that we will not hesitate to prosecute those who threaten violence against the Jewish community,” Clarke added.
Attorney General Merrick Garland denounced hate crimes as attempts to “fracture our society and isolate communities from one another,” according to the press release.
Boryga’s “actions were not just heinous, they were unlawful,” Garland declared.
